THOMAS
BECKET(c. 1120-1170), Archbishop of Canterbury
and Martyr.

ASON
of Normans who had settled in London, Thomas was educated at Merton Priory
(Surrey), at a school in London, and in Paris, where Robert of Melun may have
been among his teachers; but he was never a great scholar. By 1146 he was a
member of the household of Theobald, ﻿Abp.﻿ of Canterbury, who sent him to study
law at Bologna and Auxerre and, after ordaining him deacon, appointed him
Archdeacon of Canterbury in 1154. In 1155 Henry II made him his Chancellor, and
his influence was enhanced by an intimate friendship with the King. He liked
hunting and the display of pomp, and during a military expedition to France took
a personal part in the fighting. His policy as Chancellor was generally in
harmony with the wishes of the King, often against the interests of the Church;
and when, in 1162, he was elected Archbishop﻿ of Canterbury at the instigation
of the King, he accepted the office with reluctance, knowing a break to be
inevitable.

FROM
now on Becket championed his own rights and those of his archbishopric and of
the Church with surprising determination. He resigned the chancellorship, and
disputes with the King, crucially over how criminous clerks should be tried and
punished, led Henry in 1163 to require the bishops to sanction the ‘ancient
customs of the kingdom’. When a code of these customs, the ‘Constitutions of
Clarendon’, was promulgated in 1164, Becket was forced to submit, an act of
which he soon repented. Henry, therefore, began to persecute him because of his
‘ingratitude’, required him to account for money he had received when
Chancellor, and charged him with breaking his promise to observe the
Constitutions. His trial and condemnation in the royal court at Northampton in
October led him to flee to France and appeal for justice to Alexander III, then
at Sens.

DURING
the following negotiations between the Pope, Henry, and the Archbishop, Thomas
stayed at first at the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny in Burgundy, and when the
King threatened to expel all Cistercians from his dominions (1166), he moved to the Benedictine
abbey of Ste-Colombe at Sens, which was under the special protection of the
French King. After he had issued sentences of excommunication against some
bishops and royal servants in 1166 and 1169, he made peace unexpectedly with
Henry at Fréteval in July 1170. The King promised to make amends for the
coronation of his son by the ﻿Abp.﻿ of York (Roger of Pont-l’Évêque), a flagrant
infringement of the prerogatives of Canterbury, while Thomas sent Papal letters
of suspension to the bishops who had assisted at the ceremony.

BECKET
crossed to England on 30 Nov., where he was received with popular enthusiasm. He
refused, however, to absolve the bishops, unless they would swear to accept
penalties which the Pope would impose. Henry, naturally furious, uttered some
words in a fit of rage which were enough to inspire four knights (Hugh de
Morville, William do Tracy, Reginald Fitz-Urse, Richard le Breton) to make their
way to Canterbury in revenge. Becket was assassinated in his cathedral in the
late afternoon of 29 Dec. 1170.

THE
murder provoked great indignation throughout Europe. Miracles were soon recorded
at Becket’s tomb and a widespread cult developed. On 21 Feb. 1173 he was
canonized by Alexander III and on 12 July 1174 Henry did public penance at the
shrine. Becket’s remains were translated to their place in the choir (the
‘Trinity Chapel’) in 1220 and until the destruction of the shrine under Henry
VIII (1538) it remained one
of the principal pilgrimage centres of Christendom. Feast day, 29 Dec.; of his
translation, 7 July.

Correspondence ﻿ed.﻿,
with Eng. ﻿tr.﻿,
by A. J. Duggan (2 vols., Oxford Medieval Texts, 2000); ﻿id.﻿,
Thomas Becket: A Textual History of his Letters (Oxford, 1980). J. C.
Robertson and J. B. Sheppard, Materials for the History of Thomas Becket
(﻿RS﻿,
7 vols., 1875–85); The Life and Death of Thomas Becket … based on the
account of William fitzStephen his clerk, with additions from other contemporary
sources, ﻿tr.﻿
and ﻿ed.﻿ G.
Greenaway (Folio Society, 1961); M. Staunton (﻿ed.﻿),
The Lives of Thomas Becket [Eng. ﻿tr.﻿
of selected sources] (Manchester, 2001).